"But of course they shouldn't bail themselves out. The 47% slackers need to chip in on that. Privatize the profits. Socialize the losses. This will lead to Saint Reagan farting unicorns from a rainbow."

doyner:This is as clear of a sign as anything that Pawlenty is running in 2016. He has the credentials (to the GOP) from his time as governor, now he's going to shore-up the financial sector support by crusading for them and padding his Rolodex....and coffers.

My words. Mark them.

The fact that he's taken a head lobbying job for The Financial Services Roundtable shows that his political career is pretty much over. That's the kind of cushy K Street lobbying job politicians retire to when they've been put out to pasture.

Let's put it this way ... he couldn't even get out of the starting gate in 2012 Primary with that field full of misfits and freaks. He's going to have no chance in in 2016 when Jeb, Christie, Rubio and Ryan are in the field?

Citizens should be trusted to pay the taxes they owe. The IRS is completely unnecessary and onerous oversight.

Other countries can be counted on to not invade anyone. We have no need for a military.

We can trust people not to enter the country without the proper approvals. The border patrol should be disbanded.

People certainly value their cars and lives and can be trusted to drive responsibly. There is no need to have traffic signs, speed limits and lights telling them how to act or traffic police to enforce the rules.

Mikey1969:"But the obligation and the opportunity of the organizations is to put controls in place and a culture in place that minimizes the likelihood of that, but does it voluntarily."

Because if there's ANYTHING we can count on, it's large corporations to voluntarily impose restrictions on themselves. YAY Free Market!

It's arguably a violation of a corporation's fiduciary duty to its shareholders to adopted voluntary restrictions that can reduce their profits (without getting consent from all the shareholders, at least).

ROMNEY: Well, we do provide care for people who don't have insurance, people - we - if someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing for that care.

"These are large organizations with tens of thousands of employees in many cases. There is always going to be some individual doing something that's off track. That's human nature. But the obligation and the opportunity of the organizations is to put controls in place and a culture in place that minimizes the likelihood of that, but does it voluntarily."

Ah yes, the famous "one bad apple" defense and strategy. Banks just want to be good and follow the law, but there's always some rogue employee spoiling things for the rest of us.

"These are large organizations with tens of thousands of employees in many cases. There is always going to be some individual doing something that's off track. That's human nature. But the obligation and the opportunity of the organizations is to put controls in place and a culture in place that minimizes the likelihood of that, but does it voluntarily."

InmanRoshi:doyner: This is as clear of a sign as anything that Pawlenty is running in 2016. He has the credentials (to the GOP) from his time as governor, now he's going to shore-up the financial sector support by crusading for them and padding his Rolodex....and coffers.

My words. Mark them.

The fact that he's taken a head lobbying job for The Financial Services Roundtable shows that his political career is pretty much over. That's the kind of cushy K Street lobbying job politicians retire to when they've been put out to pasture.

Let's put it this way ... he couldn't even get out of the starting gate in 2012 Primary with that field full of misfits and freaks. He's going to have no chance in in 2016 when Jeb, Christie, Rubio and Ryan are in the field?

I would LOVE to make a side bet on this. What do you think all the candidates that weren't in office during the campaign were doing?

ROMNEY: Well, we do provide care for people who don't have insurance, people - we - if someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing for that care.

What do you mean, learn? Learn from what? You made the false assumption that these jackasses give a flying fark about us regular people beyond the lies they tell in front of cameras. Banks found out that politicians will just bail them out, the rich got richer, corporations have made record profits, and the average worker is so desperate for a job now they'll work for less. Nobody responsible was held accountable or sent to jail and nobody will be, no meaningful reform has happened or likely will. What makes you think people like Romney, Pawlenty, and the Financial Services Roundtable and other groups/corps like them aren't quite happy with the results?

Citizens should be trusted to pay the taxes they owe. The IRS is completely unnecessary and onerous oversight.

Other countries can be counted on to not invade anyone. We have no need for a military.

We can trust people not to enter the country without the proper approvals. The border patrol should be disbanded.

People certainly value their cars and lives and can be trusted to drive responsibly. There is no need to have traffic signs, speed limits and lights telling them how to act or traffic police to enforce the rules.

What do you mean, learn? Learn from what? You made the false assumption that these jackasses give a flying fark about us regular people beyond the lies they tell in front of cameras. Banks found out that politicians will just bail them out, the rich got richer, corporations have made record profits, and the average worker is so desperate for a job now they'll work for less. Nobody responsible was held accountable or sent to jail and nobody will be, no meaningful reform has happened or likely will. What makes you think people like Romney, Pawlenty, and the Financial Services Roundtable and other groups/corps like them aren't quite happy with the results?

Indeed. Of course, considering some 300,000,000 Americans part of the superfluous population that has stake in policy matters is a very dangerous game. It's possible people might get upset at the actual culprits.

/hint: it's not the poor, right wingers//and it's not the cops, left wingers

"But the obligation and the opportunity of the organizations is to put controls in place and a culture in place that minimizes the likelihood of that, but does it voluntarily."

Why, T'Pau? Why should it be voluntary? My underwriting your evil-minded shiat isn't voluntary. My participation in the system that feeds these pieces of trash until the bankers themselves start to look like human balloons made entirely of stolen money isn't voluntary. Why should it be "voluntary"?

Because here's what I get when I think "voluntary". I think fark your system, I refuse to cooperate. I "volunteer" to expropriate everything that's been stolen. I "volunteer" to start building scaffolds and guillotines. How's that for voluntary?

You want your capitalist gravy train? You'd better farking hope the regulators reign this shiat in before even more people start contemplating what they could "volunteer" to do.

Rivers will clean themselves. We don't need the EPA to decide how much arsenic should be in your drinking water. If a river is on fire, that's just the free market promoting competition among the various rivers that do business in the US of A.

That's fine with me, we will just have a set of regulated banks who receive FDIC insurance and are not investment banks and another set who can make their own rules and attract business through the free market without FDIC backing.

Remember when Tim Pawlenty was considered one of the "serious" prospects (and it was always taken as read but never stated outright just what that "seriousness" was as opposed to, probably just for the sake of politeness) for the Republican nomination?

Good times. At least he had a better angle than a farking book tour.

I suppose I can take some solace in having watched a major political party's primary election process get whored out THAT shamelessly. It's like it all went down in the lobby of the motel right next to the airport at about lunch time, and everybody reeked of cheapass vodka and nobody gave a shiat. Like, at all. Not even the fat guy working the desk, he was reading the want ads and munching on a baby ruth the whole time the GOP was yelling "oh shiat yeah gimme that big cock oooooh fark baby NEXT" really unconvincingly.